The Kentucky Division of Water (DOW) is making available assistance funds to help communities pay for source water protection projects that will help prevent contamination of drinking water sources.
The funds, not to exceed $60,000 per project, are available to public water systems as well as the entities they serve.
“The goal of the funding program is to make money available for small projects that can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time,” said Jim Calhoun with the Wellhead Protection Program. “We are encouraging public water systems, towns, cities, counties and even schools to propose a new project, or complete a current project, that will help protect the drinking water sources utilized by their public water systems.”
Some examples of possible projects include plugging unused or abandoned water wells, installing best management practices or implementing management strategies previously identified in a wellhead or source water protection plan.
Communities are not required to provide matching funds or in-kind services in order to receive funding.
“Communities or public water systems receive this money outright for their projects without the requirement for matching funds,” Calhoun said. “Our goal is to help communities implement protection measures quickly and effectively through small-scale projects.”
Supplemental funding contributions, including in-kind resources, will be taken into consideration during the application evaluation and the division is encouraging partnerships to implement source water protection.
Project proposals, available on the DOW website , must be submitted to DOW before March 1, 2016 for consideration.
Completion of the full application is not required until the applicant has been notified by DOW that their project has been tentatively selected for funding. For more information, contact Jim Calhoun at 502-564-3410 or jim.calhoun@ky.gov.
Commonwealth of Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet